


Another Time

by dietcokeenthusiast



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied Soriel, Post-Canon, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 06:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5616811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dietcokeenthusiast/pseuds/dietcokeenthusiast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans is still having nightmares about the things that didn't happen, but actually did. Maybe breakfast with Papyrus can help him get his head straight, but can he still protect his brother from the full extent of the truth?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Time

“heya. you've been busy, huh?”

Sans’ eyes immediately flash to the child’s hands. They’re almost completely covered in chalky powder. The knife catches the light from the windows in the hallway.

“so, i've got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change… ?”

His eyes move up to the kid’s face. They’re still grinning the same sick grin they wore when he met them in Snowdin. Sans would bet his life it was the same damned grin as when they killed… _no._ He forced the thought from his head. No matter what this… thing did, he made that promise to the old lady. He had to try. Just like _he_ would have done.

“that everybody can be a good person, if they just try?”

The creature’s expression was unchanged as they took a step towards Sans. It was almost as if they were daring him to make the first move.

Sans chuckled despite himself. If he couldn’t appeal to that thing’s sense of decency, maybe there was a sense of self-preservation somewhere in there. “all right. well, here’s a better question,” he dropped his voice and glared right into the creature’s eyes. “do you wanna have a bad time?”

The creature tilted their head at Sans. “’cause if you take another step forward, you are REALLY not going to like what happens next.”

Another step forward. The same grin. The same god damned grin. It was at this point Sans realized there wasn’t a thing in earth that he could do to convince the creature to stop. He’d had some dreams of some pretty nasty humans dropping down underground, but he wasn’t even sure this was nastiness. Just some sort of force moving forward, no matter what the cost. He sighed. “welp. sorry, old lady. this is why i never make promises.”

Yet another step forward, a red glow emanating from their chest. Sans wasn’t even sure how the damned thing even had a soul, but there it was. He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. “it’s a beautiful day outside.”

Another step. “birds are singing, flowers are blooming…”

Another step. They were getting quicker. “on days like these, kids like you…”

He opened his eyes to find the thing charging at him. “Should be burning in hell.” He raised his hand before throwing it down, and a sickening crunch sounded as he drove them face first into the ground. They squirmed the best they could to avoid the torrent of bones Sans had sent their way, but Sans wasn’t done just yet. The glow in his eye getting brighter, he conjured the Gaster Blasters and was just about to fire them when-

\---

Sans woke up in a cold sweat on the couch. This was the second nightmare tonight. It was the strangest thing; Sans always had these dreams, things he had known happened in other timelines, but somehow they had gotten even worse once they made it onto the surface. They’d “won”, but Sans just got more and more reminders of a time when they didn’t. It was like a bad joke, and not the kind that could still tickle your ribs.

Rubbing his head, Sans slowly got up off the couch. Feeling his way along the walls into the kitchen, he flicked on the light switch and scanned his surroundings. _Fridge, Frisk’s art on the fridge, counter, that new microwave Toriel bought, stove’s still got the pot of spaghetti melted into it, so far so good._ He looked up at the clock, which read 5:00 AM. Everyone would still be asleep, so he’d have to be quiet.

As he passed Frisk’s room, he felt relieved they were at their dad’s tonight. It was never easy to see the kid after one of those dreams. Especially when they weren’t really dreams. Continuing down the hall, he carefully opened the middle door, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw Toriel’s figure underneath the covers. He hated to risk disturbing her, which is why he always slept on the couch on his bad nights, but he needed to check. He needed to remind himself that in this universe, things were still all right.

Moving to the last door, he saw Papyrus curled up in his race car bed. His grin got just the slightest bit wider. He had gotten used to the dreams in a lot of ways, but the one thing that never got easier, no matter how many times he “experienced” it, was finding Papyrus’ armor and scarf just lying there in the snow and having to realize what happened. What the thing that lived in Frisk did to him. Seeing him okay… that made Sans realize things were all right.

He slowly moved the door closed, when he noticed Papyrus stirring in his bed. Then, he heard his voice. “Sans? Is that you?”

He stopped for a moment. “yeah. it’s nothing bro, just go back to sleep.”

“Since when are you up so early?” Papyrus mumbled, as he sat up in his bed.

Sans chuckled. Papyrus had no idea about the nightmares, how often he actually was up that early, and he wanted to keep it that way. That was his burden to carry. “come on bro, you don’t think I’m actually that much of a lazybones, do you?”

He immediately ducked his head to avoid the pillow flying at him. “Oh my god, Sans! It’s too early for terrible bone puns!”

“sorry, just trying to be a bit humerus,” Sans winked. Papyrus just groaned. “uh, really though, it’s no big deal. i’m up early just because.”

“Oh! In that case can I be up early too, just because? That’s my favorite reason to be up early!”

Sans hesitated for a moment. There was still a lot he didn’t want Papyrus to know, but it was hard to try and keep absolutely everything to himself. Besides, his brother was one of the best, coolest people he knew. Maybe there was _something_ they could talk about. “sure thing. feel like breakfast?”

“Of course! But I’m not sure how I’m going to make breakfast until our stove gets replaced…”

“uh, well, maybe you could take a break today?” Sans hoped that would be enough to deter him. “there’s a diner that makes some pretty good waffles.”

Papyrus got up out of bed, and fixed his scarf. “This better not be a ploy to get me into Grillby’s!”

“relax bro, I know you got your standards. i’ll leave T a note, and then we can get over there.”

The diner was only a couple of blocks away, and aside from a couple of human girls who didn’t look completely in their right mind, they had the place mostly to themselves. Sans ordered them both waffles and coffee, and their server brought them both out shortly after. It didn’t take long for Papyrus to start wolfing down his waffles.

“Wowie! These are delicious! So goldeny and sweet! I think I’ll have to ask Undyne if she knows how to make these for our next cooking lesson.”

Sans laughed as he thought about how disastrous the two of them making waffles would be. Probably a burnt chunk of batter on the end of a spear. “glad you like them, bro.”

“Your taste in food is far better than your taste in jokes!” Papyrus proclaimed between bites. “Not as good as the great Papyrus’, but whose is?”

“fair enough,” Sans sat back and sipped his coffee. He’d never tell Toriel, but he preferred going out for breakfast. It’s not that she wasn’t a great cook, but he’d always preferred coffee to tea. He hadn’t forgotten about why he brought his brother along, though, and now seemed as good a time to bring up the subject as any. “so, uh, hey, you’re pretty good at the whole seeing good in everyone thing, right?”

“Of course I am! It helps that everyone wants to show their best side around me, but I’m really very good at that.”

Sans nodded. “so… you think even the worst person could change? that they could be a good person if they really tried?”

“Of course, Sans, don’t be such a bonehead!”

“nice one,” Sans grinned wider.

“UGH!” Papyrus grunted. “This is your fault! You’ve brainwashed me with your terrible jokes!”

“all in the family,” Sans replied smugly, much to Papyrus’ chagrin. “but yeah, what if you’re dealing with someone who’s, well, i don’t even know if you could call them a person,” he continued, shifting back to the main topic.

“What do you mean?”

“well, i guess people usually have something motivating them. something they want,” Sans took another sip. “but what if they don’t want anything? what if they’re doing really bad things, not because they want something, but just because they can?”

“Well, I think someone like that needs you to believe in them even more,” Papyrus explained as he finished the last of his waffles. “Someone like that, maybe they want to change, but just need help to be able to do it. It’s not always easy to do the right thing, and people need someone to believe in them!”

“but what if the person’s dangerous?” Sans felt himself getting more insistent. “let’s say they hurt the people who are important to you. really badly. what then?”

“Since when do you get so worked up, Sans?” Papyrus questioned.

“hey, it’s all right,” Sans responded evenly. “but what if that’s the case?”

Papyrus hesitated a moment before answering. “You still do your best to believe they can be better. Even if no one else thinks so. Even if they don’t think so.”

Sans nodded. “so let’s say they try and do the right thing. can you trust them?”

Papyrus cocked his head. “Well that’s a weird question! If they’re doing the right thing, why exactly wouldn’t you trust them?”

Sans sighed. That was the whole problem with everything. Frisk was a good kid, and it’s not like the two of them didn’t get along. He was “Uncle Sans,” after all. That still didn’t change reality, though. Sans knew about the ability to reset, and to save. He knew that his dreams were visions of what actually happened in other timelines before those got reset. Most importantly, he knew that there was something in Frisk that wasn’t just capable of being a killer, but something not even human or monster. Sure, Frisk helped bust them out of the underground, and they’ve been living on the surface pretty happily ever since, but Sans could never let go of the thought that at any point, Frisk could send them right back down underground, as if they were all some set of toys to be discarded when they were no good any more.

He tried to think of a way to express that to Papyrus. He couldn’t burden him with something so terrible, but there had to be some way he could at least understand the idea... “what if on top of all that, they had the power to undo all the good they did, like that? and you know they’d done all those bad things before. how do you trust them?”

Papyrus paused for a moment. “What’s wrong, Sans? It sounds like there’s something you’re hiding from me. ”

He just kept smiling his usual grin. He was at a loss at how he could get Papyrus to understand without telling him the whole thing, and he was equally at a loss at how to tell someone like Papyrus that he had to find his remains again, and again, and again. “it’s nothing. just making conversation.”

“Well, this sure is a weird conversation topic!” Papyrus declared as he drank his coffee in a single gulp.

“eh. sorry about that. didn’t mean to weird you out,”

“You’ve always been weird, Sans. I’m used to it,” Papyrus shrugged. “Still, that’s some pretty scary stuff that you’ve been talking about. I can’t even imagine anyone that could be so horrible that they’d go back to doing the wrong thing once they had someone to help keep them on the straight and narrow.”

_Of course you couldn’t._ “like I said, just making conversation. nothing you need to worry about.”

“But that sounds like something we all need to be worried about!” Papyrus insisted. “Your brother is the great Papyrus! Whatever it is, I can protect you and everyone else.”

“uh, bro, no offense, but the last time you tried to protect monsterkind, you made friends with the human you tried to capture. thanks,” he stopped the conversation for a moment to thank the server, who had refilled his cup. “the kind of ‘thing’ i'm talking about can’t just be befriended.”

“Well, maybe someone just didn’t try hard enough! Besides, I made friends with the human and they got us all out to the surface. It all worked out!”

_Except for all the times it didn’t!_ Sans felt himself getting frustrated. The two humans on the other side of the diner were raising their voices with each other, another unwelcome distraction. How could he get through Papyrus’ thick skull that it wasn’t that simple? “what if you do all that, and that bad thing hurts you? or someone you care about? does that mean you were wrong?”

Papyrus paused for a moment. Something Sans said must have gotten to him, because he certainly wasn’t one to be deep in thought. Finally, he shook his head. “Sans, sometimes no matter what you do, there are bad people out there. You can’t stop that,” he leaned in closer. “You can control what you do, though. Even if you don’t think you can, or even should, you can always be the better person. Maybe that’s silly, but it’s what I believe!”

Sans took a long drink. The coffee was bitter. “you really think so, bro?”

“Well duh!” Papyrus threw up his hands. “I wouldn’t say so if I didn’t actually believe it!”

Maybe he had a point. As hard as it was to accept, he was absolutely powerless when it came to facing the kid. The only thing he could do was try to be as good a person as he could be. Nightmares were tough, but he’d been able to do all right coping with that so far. The kid all right now too, and Toriel probably wouldn’t appreciate it if he decided to get proactive. Things were the way they were, and he had to accept it.

Sans put money down on the table, and picked up the to go box with Toriel’s breakfast. “hey, papyrus?”

“What is it, Sans?” he asked as he made his way out of the booth, only for Sans to pull him into a hug.

“thanks for talking with me, bro.”

Papyrus smiled as best he could, and returned the hug. “Of course, the great Papyrus always has time for his best brother!”

Sans felt a little bit better, at least, as they made their way out of the diner. “So what do you think I’d need to make waffles?” Papyrus asked. “Sugar? Eggs? Marinara sauce?”

“bro, you’d know better than i would,” he chuckled as the two of them made their way out of the diner. Catching a glimpse of the two humans, it looked like they had kissed and made up. Always nice to see a happy ending, even if he didn’t know the story.

As far as Frisk was concerned? It’d be easier said than done, but maybe Sans could let go. The kid hadn’t given them any reason not to trust them so far.

Of course, among the things he had to accept, is that he also just wasn’t the kind of person his brother was. He’d seen too much to be able to believe so wholeheartedly that everyone was good. For now, the kid could be trusted.

If the day ever came that Sans woke up underground again, though?

The second he saw them, they’d be dead right where they stood.


End file.
